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| Clarence Darrow at the 1925 Scopes trial |
By that criteria, damn few of us are 'free' and most of those who are keep their ill-gotten gains in some off-shore tax haven.
As we trundle towards the end of a soaking wet but drought-ridden April in 2012 hoping the free sand bags will keep our feet dry, we find hundreds of £millions being spent on playing with the lives of unemployed people as A4E and the like construct cruel games in which to prepare people for jobs which are simply not there.
We stumble over government ministers desperately sweeping under the carpet [or, famously, hiding behind trees] their dealings with Rupert Murdoch. And not just in Westminster. Scotland's government has more than a whiff of the Murdoch taint at its heart.
Older people in 'care' homes are shown to be abused and not protected by human or other rights. Young disabled people find their schooling disrupted because a health board fails to provide nurse support. Councils seriously consider mass enforced migration of social rented tenants to other parts of the country because of housing benefit caps imposed by government. And the NHS in England now finds Virgin is delivering services to patients - and making a profit.
Hundreds of thousands of people are clearly not 'free' in our society. It is the responsibility of those few of us who have and enjoy real, clear freedoms to endorse Clarence Darrow's analysis and work unstintingly to enable those who are not free to slip the shackles of 21st century slavery.
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